The near 52,000 China-born people in Britain comprise one of the smallest key immigrant groups. They are mainly concentrated in London.

But the 2001 figures are almost certainly only part of the picture as Chinese community leaders accept an underreporting of their nationals, driven by asylum movements and unauthorised or illegal migrants.

The growth in China-born people in Eastern England does reflect some of this economic migration. There was a 152% rise in Chinese people in the area over 10 years, representing 4,661 people or 0.09% of the local population.

By contrast, clusters in Cambridge and Oxford reflect the growth in numbers of foreign students at those universities.

Concentrations of people born in China

Map on right shows country as if areas with roughly equal populations were the same size. So, densely populated London takes up much more space than sparsely populated Scottish Highlands.

At-a-glance

51,717 people born in China were identified in the 2001 Census, representing 0.09% of the British population.

13,782 are resident in London, while Wales and the North East had the smallest communities.

5 of the fastest growing Chinese clusters are close to universities with large overseas recruitment drives.

243,000 people told the Census they had Chinese ethnicity, with 80,000 of them in the capital.